Bouncing Vaughn
by green-apple
Summary: Someone's after Vaughn to kill him. Will he make it?. I thought I'd post this since I've finished it.
1. Bouncing

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TITLE: BOUNCING VAUGHN

AUTHOR: greenapple

SUMMARY: someone is after Vaughn and he's trying escape from death.

A/N: First Alias fic. Something I've been thinking for a while now. This is a Virgin story, no one had beta-ed it, so suggestions/insults/rotten tomatoes will be warmly welcome at 

DISCLAIMER: Don't own them, but I wish I had Vaughn all for me.

Vaughn was surprised to see himself assigned to a field mission. He wasn't a field operative, so he wasn't just used to it. But he obliged anyway.

The few times he'd been in the field were because of Sydney. On or off the record, his only 'spy adventures', like he silly called them, Sydney Bristow had been involved. But, there he was, receiving a mission briefing from Jack Bristow, which, by the way, he never thought would happen.

Vaughn got the details of his mission, asked a few questions and got a few answers. Jack told him that he was going to be accompanied by Sydney, that they'd pose as brother and sister in an excursion in India. Their mission was very simple: they would have to extract information from a hidden base, information about mysterious vaccines developed within that base. There were not security problems, the CIA had notes on every change of guards, dates, times, and nothing could go wrong. It was and break in, take the information they needed, and get out mission.

Vaughn asked why Sydney wasn't there with them receiving the briefing with him, and Jack said she had a mission with SD-6, that Vaughn himself had to brief her when she got back.

Jack stood up and left Vaughn wondering if Sydney could easily do this job all by herself, why was the CIA asking him to go with her? He didn't give that much thought and he went to prepare himself for his mission.

Once he knew Sydney would be at home, he called her at home to with the usual 'Joey's pizza?' code. Later, they met at the warehouse and he gave her all the mission's particulars. Sydney didn't seem surprised to be sent to a mission with a much less experienced agent. She flashed him one of her famous smiles and asked him if there was something else. And there wasn't, so she left.

Actually, Sydney was kind of excited to travel with Vaughn, and she didn't see how dangerous it would be if SD-6 discover her going on a mission with a CIA officer posing as brother and sister. That would definitely blow her cover. But according to her father, he had worked out that part with Sloane. How? She didn't wonder.

They met on the plane and she pretended to be asleep the whole trip, but from time to time, she would take a peek in Vaughn's direction and see him staring absently through the plane window.

They got safe to their destination. They played the brother and sister act and everyone bought it. Once they were in the outdoors, they stopped the charade. She noticed him a little strange and she thought it might be him being concentrating, but after a little while of quiet walking, she decided to ask him about it.

"Vaughn, what's wrong?" She asked a little preoccupied. "Why?" He asked her. "You've been a little quiet since we took the plane in LA". She answered him. "I-I've been, I don't know I have a bad feeling, that's all" Sydney dismissed any further questions the same time Vaughn did with his hand.

They walked another mile and got to the base. Like they were told, it was an easy cake. Vaughn checked the security and guard their exit while Sydney took the information they needed. They reunited and left. It took them thirty-five minutes. Then, they took the same road back to the hotel.

Sydney took that opportunity to tell him a few things about her normal life. How Francie was doing with her restaurant and how thankful she was for getting Will a research job. She was trying to make conversation and Vaughn played along. She asked him about his favorites teams in every sport and he answered her. She also asked him about what books he liked and some other trivial stuff. At some point she felt it was a one-sided conversation.

After a little while, Sydney asked him if he was scared when he discovered he had been infected with the virus. He lowered his eyes and took a deep breath, then told her that it was one of the scariest moments of his life. That it wasn't the scariest, but it ranked the top three, and that he didn't want to go through something like that again; all the pain, the uncertainty, the fear. He thought there was a lot more he had to do, and those days made him feel like he would never find out how much more he could do. And after that, he shouted down to her again.

They got to the hotel and waited for the next day to come. Each one of them went to their rooms. Vaughn still had the feeling something bad was going to happen. He couldn't shrug it off. But there's always another day. His aunt Trish told him that. Well, kind of.

The next morning, Sydney told him they got to be in the airport at 2 and that they were going to take a plane to Germany and then he would take a plane to LA and she would take another to London, and finally make it back to LA. He didn't understand why they would have to make so many scales, why just go straight home. She told him that they would separate in Germany because her father had told Sloane that she wanted to go to London and a tour for a few other European cities, and that way it wouldn't be a problem.

They took the plane and in fact separated in Germany, she waited for her flight to London and he went to rent a hotel room because his plane would leave thirteen hours later, and he was tired.

When he was going on his way to a paid phone, he saw a men walking behind him. He had already seen that guy when they landed, but dismissed his worries. He looked up for a hotel in the phone guide and went to take a taxi. He got to the hotel and paid for a room and told the receptionist to call him in a few hours and also asked for something to eat.

He ate and slept and then decided to take a small walk. He was looking for something to give to his mother and went to a few stores in the area before his ride to the airport arrived to the hotel. When he was walking, he saw the same guy. He was wearing a hat and different clothes, but it was the same man, Vaughn could tell. He, in a paranoid act, got into one store and watched the man do the same thing, then Vaughn left the store and confirm that man was following him.

Vaughn walked and kept walking to a crowed street. They wouldn't do anything to hurt him where there were people, right? Then, Vaughn found an ally. He went in. He saw the man looking for him, and Vaughn decided to hide for a while. When he could no longer see the man, he decided to go out. He looked everywhere before going out.

Vaughn decided it was time to go back to the hotel and let the CIA know he was in trouble, but when he was on his way he saw the man again. They could see each other's faces. Vaughn gasped, he turned to avoid the other man, but bumped into a woman with a lot of bags with her. The woman was not very pleased of being thrown to the ground by a mad man, and Vaughn could tell she was cursing him and his grandchildren in German.

Vaughn composed himself and stood up and started running. Every now and then he turned around to see if the man was still following him. He was, so he kept running. He ran through several blocks and found a place where he thought he could hide. He hid there long enough to suppose the other guy was looking for him somewhere else. He went out, but just then, he saw the other man right in front of him, Vaughn started running again, but he got to a dead end. He turned again and saw the man. Vaughn froze. The man told him not to move, and aimed his gun to Vaughn, he was going to shot, but Vaughn, in a very quick movement, managed to throw some coins he had in his pockets to the man and when he regained his composure Vaughn was nowhere to be seen.

The man chased Vaughn and was few steps behind him. Vaughn ran faster than he ever thought he could and kept turning his head to see his hunter with a gun pointing at Vaughn. Vaughn tripped on his own feet but he got up fast. Then he saw a fence a big fence and he jumped. He kept on running in a sense of self preserving, and he didn't feel the exploding sensation in his abdomen.

Vaughn managed to lose the man. And he found another place to hide. He held his breath every time he heard a movement, fearing it was his hunter searching for him. He was behind a huge metal box that was used for storage in a dark alley. He was cold, he was freezing. He wasn't wearing the right clothes. Everything around him was damped and dirty. He closed his eyes and refused to believe that was happening to him. It couldn't be for real.

At some point he fell asleep. When he woke up, he couldn't figure out where he was or why he was there. He looked around him and he saw nothing but metal walls; that's when his mind started working again: he was hiding from a man who was after him to kill him. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself.

He needed to think of what to do.

He closed his eyes, and made himself think. 'Come on, Michael, let's see what you have' he thought to himself. He checked his pockets. He had some money, enough to bribe a few people to help him get out of Germany. He also had his passport and the keys to his hotel room. Well, they weren't going to do much for him now. He threw them away. He also had his wallet with him. He had sewn on his jacket he real passport and documents identifying him as a CIA officer. He also had a few false passport and ids.

One of the few things he learnt from his father reading his journal and a few conversations he heard him having with someone else was always have your real documents hiding somewhere with you, because you never know when you're going to need them; but also don't forget to have a few bogus ones. They're even more important than the real ones. He was his father's child.

His survivor instincts kicked in and he figured out a way to get out of the country without being known as CIA officer Vaughn or the alias he was checked in the hotel. He was obvious of the wound in his abdomen, partly it was the adrenaline, and partly he didn't have time to worry about it. He started walking away, nervous every time someone approached, cautious every time a car passed by. All his things were at the hotel and maybe the people following him were or had been there. He wasn't going to take that risk.

Thank God he was wearing a dark jacket because every one would have notice the bloodstain on it. He took a cab to a bar in a not so good part of the city, but where he knew for some reason that he was going to find someone he could pay to falsify the immigrations seals on his fake passport and someone to help him leave the country in a not so very legal way.

He did found that someone. He used the password. "Hast du heute die Zigaretten-schachtel gehabt?" all he needed to hear as a comfirmation was "Die Zigaretten-schachtel ist jetzt hier". Vaughn thought it was a stupid set of questions to used like a passwords which made no sense at all when used together, but he didn't have to use them again, so he didn't worry about how stupid they might sound.

"Wo ist das Geld?" The man asked him. "Ich habe das Geld. Schaffst du das?" Vaughn said in his precarious German. "Ja." The man nodded. "Das kann sein. Sie kann nicht gut Deutsch". Vaughn smiled and said "Ich kommen aus Frankreich". He half lied. The man didn't buy it. But hey, he was going to be paid a lot of money to take this man out of the country, so if he said he was from France, he was from France.

Vaughn asked the man if he could get a new set of clothes, he didn't want to cause the impression of being a homeless guy. But he also didn't want to look like an American CIA officer trying to escape from eminent death. Once he got his new clothes, he went to the bathroom and began to change. And then. He noticed the amount of blood coming out of the little hole in his stomach. The cold air was doing nothing to ease the pain that was starting to make itself notice. He used part of his previous shirt as a bandage and wrapped it around his waist to stop the bleeding for a little while. He had brought some whiskey and vodka from the bar with him and poured a lot of liquor over a piece of cloth and then put it on the wound in order to diminish his chances of getting an infection. That was the last thing he needed then.

The man at the bar, also known as the Kaiser, told Vaughn that they were going to a town outside Munich by car to get to a private airport where they would take a 'cargo airplane' (that was the term used by the Kaiser) which was going to take Vaughn to Spain. The town was two hours from where they were at that moment. He had to pretend he was another worker in a fake mailing company, which, in reality, was a façade of a bunch of computer contrabandists. Nothing so outside the law, Vaughn thought.

The man gave Vaughn his papers and drove him to the town. Vaughn kept his coat with the passport sewn to it with him, and the pain barely noticeable before was now causing him trouble standing upright. The Kaiser noticed that and told him, this time in English that they could stop anytime he wanted.

"Are you sure you're alright?" The Kaiser asked. Vaughn nodded. "You need medical attention. That bullet is not going to be taken out by itself" he said with a little smile. "I'll take care of it once I got out of here" Vaughn replied. "That doesn't sound French at all." The Kaiser inquired. "You also speak English and I didn't say a thing." Vaughn was ready to evade. "You're an American, right?" the asked continued his interrogatory. "You don't know a word of French, do you?" "I DO know a couple of things I could tell you in French right now, but I don't want you to cut my throat." "You have to be an American." "No, I'm French." Vaughn said again. "Not need to be lying, my friend" The Kaiser smiled. "You are an American, with friends in high places." "How would you know?" Vaughn wanted to know how this man could be so sure about his proceedings. "You asked for the cigarettes box. That's the password for Americans. Americans secret agents who are desperate." He smiled again. "I'm not a secret agent" and Vaughn wasn't lying again. He was an agent, not a SECRET agent. "How much longer till we get to the airport?" "Another hour." The Kaiser said. He knew Vaughn's secret, and he wasn't interested in establish a buddy-buddy relationship with Vaughn, so there was no need for Vaughn's admission. "Why are you running away?" "A good guest knows when to leave." Vaughn replied. He wasn't up to talk about his problems with a German documents faker, called "The Kaiser". "You don't want to talk about it. I'll guess. Someone is after you. They shot you. You were lucky they didn't kill you. Now you're trying to go back to your country where you think you'll be safe. But deep inside you think nothing is what it seems. You just want to get home safe." "Well, you have your own spy novel right there, dontcha?" Vaughn said in a teasing tone, although he knew everything the Kaiser was saying was true. "Hey, I'm in your corner." The Kaiser teased back.

They got to the airport and the Kaiser told Vaughn his cover: he was a German worker who just got the job today, his name was Oskar Müllen. He also told him not to speak much because everyone would notice he wasn't who he was saying he was.

"Is that a real name?" Vaughn asked. "Huh?" "Müllen. Is that a real name? Because I never can tell when is a real name." The Kaiser just smiled, leaving Vaughn with the doubt. "You'll have to figure it out. That'll give you something to think about during the plane trip." He smiled again. "Oh, and by the way, say hi to my old friend. Tell her the skies are not longer blue since she left." Vaughn felt caught. "I will," He told him. He shook the Kaiser's hand and got into the plane. The Kaiser gave him a note. He put it in Vaughn's pocket.

When Vaughn was on the plane, he showed his documents to the guy on the plane, who gave him the heads up. He told him in German that they were going to get an embark in Barcelona and deliver it in Switzerland in two days. He said some other things, but Vaughn wasn't sure about what was it. He didn't care less. He wasn't planning on staying with those guys anyway.

When he was going to put his documents back into his pockets he saw the note the Kaiser left him there.

"Once you land in Barcelona, there's going to be woman waiting for a package containing roses. You're going to tell her in Spanish that you're the guy, who brings the roses, but you lost them during the trip; that you'll get her better roses when you get back. She'll understand and she'll take you with a man named Vasquez. You tell him everything and tell him you come from the Kaiser's. He'll see what he can do to help you with everything you need."

After he read the note, he whispered to himself. " Roses? What's with these people and their weird codenames and passwords."

Vaughn felt numb and dizzy, but he couldn't let the pain stop him in his journey. He applied more alcohol to his wound and he felt like he was going to scream, but he couldn't. They would find out.

When he got to Barcelona, he went to the bathroom to check on his abdomen. The guys at the plane told him to start unpacking the boxes and load a few more into the plane. He told them he needed the bathroom for a minute and that he'll be back. When he was out of the bathroom, he sneaked out of the hangar and met the woman.

"Disculpe, Señor," She said to him. "Venía usted en el avión que acaba de aterrizar?" "Sí, señora." Vaughn waited for the signal. "Sabe si ahí venían unas rosas?" "Yo soy quien traía las rosas. Yo las perdí durante el viaje, pero le prometo que le enviaré otras mejores cuando regrese." He said to her in a quiet tone. "Eso espero." She replied.

The idea of the lady talking about money and not roses crossed his mind. How much would he have to pay her or the Kaiser? But also, someone could interpret it as Vaughn's documents being lost and him needing a ride back home.

Like the Kaiser wrote, the woman got him to the Vasquez guy who asked him how he knew about the Kaiser and Vaughn said it was through a mutual friend. Vasquez asked him what he could do for him and Vaughn told him he needed to get to the States as soon as possible. He also told him that he didn't have a Spanish passport and he needed one to get out of there.

"You don't need an Spanish passport, you need an American one." Vasquez told him.

Vasquez, like the Kaiser, was the guy to talk about false identities with perfect backgrounds and sneaky tactics. Vasquez put him inside of a container and on a plane to the states, but not before doing something for that bullet injury.

Vasquez did something to stop the bleeding for sometime and gave him the instructions. Like his other trip through Europe, he wasn't going to travel on a commercial flight, he was going to travel with packages and suitcases and containers. There was going to be a guy when they arrived to the United States.

Vaughn was getting tired of this guy-who-knows-this-guy-who-knows-this- other-guy-who-can-get-you-home-thing. He was tired of everything. He just wanted to get home. It felt like forever since he left India with Sydney. Sydney.

He felt like the strength of his body had been drained away. He felt a burning pain in his abdomen and that made him want to get home even more. He didn't want his mother to be in another family funeral and he had a lot to investigate before dying, like who set him up, who put that man behind him.

He didn't know how he was still alive. He couldn't tell how long since he'd been shot, but he could tell it was more than a day ago. He was pretty sure he had lost a lot of blood.

He was snapped back to reality by the plane landing. He was lucky not to arrive to LAX because he was pretty sure someone would be there waiting for him, but not in the good way. He knew the word that he was still alive had spread out. But he didn't land in LAX; he didn't even land in LA. He was in private airport in Arizona.

"I thought we were going to land in LA!" He exclaimed. "You didn't. You're in Arizona." His contact told him. "I- -I thought we we." He was starting to pull his hair. In any other moment, he would find that scene ridiculous, he, pulling his own hair like a desperate woman. Weiss would make fun of him. "Listen, I have to get to Los Angeles, I have to get there." He sighed. "You know, what? It doesn't matter, I'll get there by myself". He turned and left.

'This is getting old' Vaughn thought. 'I can't keep on going from plane to plane, from car to car, from town to town. I need to talk to Weiss, or Sydney.' He shook his head. 'No, I can't talk to Sydney, they would know everything, they'll know she's a double agent. I better call Weiss, or Kendall, or Devlin." He hid his head between his arms. "I really need to talk to someone."

He struggled to find a paid phone, and when he did, he called Weiss, who'd been at his home recovering from the murder attempt from Irina Derevko. "Eric?" "Mike? Mike where are you? Everyone is looking for you. You disappear th." "Eric, listen to me, I need your help." Vaughn was trying to explain but Weiss always cut him off. "What happened, man?" "It's a long story, I was in India, then I went to Germany on the way back where I saw this guy, and he went after me, Eric, he- he was going to kill me, Eric, he was going to. then I went to Spain, just to get here and- and now I'm." "Okay, okay, slow down, man." Eric told him. "Take a deep breath, and tell me where you are." "I'm in Arizona, somewhere in Arizona." "Okay, let's see. Can you get to the airport?" "I guess so. I'm sick of airports now. I've been in three of them just to get here" "Take a commercial flight. Don't buy the ticket under your name." "I'm not stupid, Eric." "I know, Mike, I know. Take the commercial flight and come to LA. I'll arrange a team to get you here safe, okay? I'll talk to Devlin; you'll be fine. Do you have money? ." "I'll see what I can do." "Okay, call me when you get to the airport." "Okay, thanks"

Vaughn hung up. He had being paranoid all the time, nothing was going to happen. He was going to get to the airport, and he was going to get home, and once there, he'll have to go to a hospital. He had forgotten about the wound.

He got to the airport. He bought a ticket to LA, just like Weiss told him to do. He was looking from side to side to see if he noticed something strange. Maybe the paranoia hadn't gone at all. Not yet. And when he was going to wait, he saw another suspicious man. Walking and approaching him like the guy in Germany, and this time, he didn't know of anyone like the Kaiser to get him out of there. He didn't show the man he had seen him. He just headed to the bathroom a little too fast. He was clutching his arm to his waist to relieve a little the pain. The thought of what that man could do to him when he was in the bathroom sent chills through his spine. He could picture himself with a bullet between his eyes.

But, he didn't go to the men's room; he went to the lady's room. And he was lucky no one was there. He hid there for a little while and then saw an air conditioner duct. He lifted the tile and got in there. Too little space for a too tall man. While waiting to get the ticket he paid attention to the ducts. He could say how much distance was between the bathroom and the exit.

The man following him didn't found him in the bathroom, so he went to the ladies room and saw a blood spot on the floor. Vaughn had been there. While the guy was checking every toilet, Vaughn learned that his calculations had been wrong. He didn't make it outside of the airport. He was still in there, and he saw some strange movements. He could tell for sure the new guys were CIA, but with everything that had happened to him since Germany, he didn't know whom to trust. He had called Eric Weiss, his good friend, and minutes later, one man was after him to finish the job in Germany and a few more were spread in the airport waiting for him to get out to take him God knows where. Better be safe.

He stole someone's coat and wore it over his own. He knew he couldn't lose his coat, because it had the fake identities and the fake passports. And he forgot he also have some money with him. He felt like in a X-Files episode 'trust no one'.

He, again, sneaked out and got into a cab before the others could notice. He asked the driver to take him to the bus station. He would take a bus to somewhere and then he would decide what to do when he got to that somewhere. He needed a plan. He was bailing out of his impending death with no plan, just with starters' luck. He needed to see possible holes and breaches. But, God, how he was tired! He couldn't go on. There was going to be more than 48 hours with no medical attention. Maybe he was like a cat, with 9 lives, or something.

He was just wondering who was behind all this.


	2. New York

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PART TWO: NEW YORK.

Disclaimer: See part one.

A/N: Thanks to the people (the four of them) who reviewed and made me notice about the misspelling of Syd and Sloane's names. Honestly, me spelling Oil Water.

Again, this story hasn't been beta-ed, so if you find any grammatical errors or more misspelled words, please let me know. Feedback (good or bad) is always welcome at 

Vaughn was on the bus to someplace in the middle of nowhere. He didn't care. He was just so submerged in his thoughts that he didn't even bother to ask where that bus was going to take him. Paranoia was his trip friend. He flinched every time he saw someone approaching, even when a little kid passed by. He had this ridiculous idea of this kid being a spy from some new CIA and/or SD-6 recruiting program. Not so new, anyway.

By the time the bus made its first stop, Vaughn was clutching his side in a failed attempt to ease the pain. He felt lightheaded and a wave of nausea was threatening to attack. Vaughn bought a bottle of water and drank it like he hadn't had any water in weeks. Actually, he hadn't had water since he left Spain. He almost freaked out when he saw a man coming to him, but it turned out to be a father looking for his little boy. Vaughn let out a sigh, action that caused him a great deal of pain.

When the bus reached its destination Vaughn was surprised to see another bus with a New York City sing on it. He quickly bought a ticket and got into it. It was a reflex, something he didn't think twice, not even once, because he, in his mind, would have never gone to a big city. Big cities were the first place to avoid when you're running away. But he didn't care. After realizing what he'd done, he thought about what he could find there.

A long day ended, and with it all Vaughn's hopes of making it to the Big Apple. He didn't even realize he had dozed off until he felt someone shaking him a little. He immediately grabbed the person's wrist with a strength he didn't know he still had. Then, he shrugged off the sleep completely and he realized it was the driver who was waking up to tell him they already got to NY. He apologized to the old man and got up.

He felt the cold air hitting every single pore of his skin. He shivered. He put his hands on his pockets and looked in every possible direction to check if there was someone suspicious enough to be his new hunter. There was no one.

He got out of the bus station doing a mental list of whom he could ask for help in the city. There was just one name that came to his mind. Determined, he took a cab to see his possible savior.

After a couple of minutes, he hailed a cab. He rested his aching head on the seat. He was sweating, even with all that cold around him. He felt his hands shaking. He started to think how he could be trapped in this situation, not knowing whom to trust, whom he was fighting against for and why. He was blindly flying his airplane. He needed a doctor, but even someone in a coma could say that whoever it was that was behind him, was searching the hospitals.

He got to his destination. He waited in a corner, arms crossed around his waist, hugging himself. He saw a young woman, petite, long dark hair, coming out of a candy store. He followed her for a few blocks, but he lost her in a blink of an eye.

He looked for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. How could he lose her? He tried to fasten his pace to see if he could catch her, but when he got to the back of what he supposed was a restaurant, he was pinned hard down to the ground.

He tried to fight. And he was succeeding, but then he recognized his attacker and that moment helped to get pinned down again; and he concluded that his attacker hadn't recognized him.

"Hey! Hey! Hang on! It's me!" he desperately tried to calm the girl. "Me, who?" She said twisting his arm that made his wound ache even more. "Don't you remember me?" HE asked incredulous. "Michael? Vaughn? Ghost Vaughn? Mic-Cole?" he said between pants.

She rose a little, but never let go of his arm. She used it to turn him onto his back and pressed her upper body to his and his wrists to the ground and she took a look at him.

"What the hell are you doing following me? Huh? Were you sent to follow me?" she was not too happy. "I- I didn't- - " he was finding very hard to breathe. "Could you please get off of me, please?" "Were you sent to?" "No!!!!!!!!!!!" He exclaimed. "No one sent me to anything. I need your help. Do you think if they were gonna put someone behind you, they would've sent ME" He sighed. "Now, are you going to help me, or are you gonna kill me? Either way, you have to make up your mind soon. You can't do either out here, right?" "Then, what are you doing here?" She asked, but also she cut him off when he was going to answer her. "Lemme guess, you're starring in your own movie: 'Run, Michael, Run"? "Apparently."

She got off of him and offered him a hand to stand up, but when he was going to do so, his vision darkened and he swayed. "Wow, Wow! Watch out, man!" She steadied him, alarmed. She managed to ease him onto the floor in a sitting position. "Are you ok?" She was genuinely concerned. "I was shot," he was trembling now. "I need to see a doctor, but I can't get to a hospital." He was trying hard to catch his breath. All the physical overexerting reaching him. "Why can't you go to the hospital?" His eyes were closing. "Michael!!! Oh God!" His head rolled back and she was sure that if she didn't do anything right there, she would lose him. "Mike, look at me." He didn't. "C'mon, look at me-you have to look at me. Focus!" She was gently slapping his face. "C'mon, let me see those baby blue eyes of yours." He whimpered and then said weakly with his eyes still closed "My eyes are green." "That-a-boy." She smiled and helped him to his feet. "Let's go. If you're doing what I think you're doing, we're gonna need to move."

She searched inside her backpack for something to alter Vaughn's appearance. Some sort of disguised. She found a long, black wig and a Yankees hat. What a best way to pass unnoticed in NY or The States in general than wearing a Yankees hat.

She set the wig on him so it would hide his face behind the hair and put the cap on. She disguised herself as well. She put on a redheaded wig, red- colored glasses and changed her coat and gave her bag to Vaughn. "Let's go." She said. And then, she grabbed his arm and helped him to walk to her car. She was looking everywhere, searching for clues to tell her they were being followed. They reached her car and she eased Vaughn to the passenger seat and drove off. "Wh- - Where are we going?" He asked her between gasps. She put her index finger on her lips and then mouthed "Bugs". He nodded his understanding and turned to face the window.

She wasn't sure actually there were bugs inside her car, but she didn't want to take the risk. They drove silently for twenty minutes until she stopped the car and got out of it. It was a lonely street. She went to a garbage can, and she inserted her hand removing the garbage. She took out something that looked like a small perfume bottle and went back to the car.

Once there, she unscrewed the cap and she used it to deactivated any bugs that could be in the car. Anyone outside the spy business could say it was taken from a Bond movie.

"Okay, we are safe now." She stated. "So, care to enlighten me what the hell you're doing here instead of LA and why you have a freaking whole in your stomach?" By the time she finished talking, she had her arms crossed around her. So mother-like. "You wouldn't believe it." He answered her. "Try me." She told him. "I. I ." he couldn't finish his response.

Just when he was going to tell her the whole story, he went pale and that wave of nausea that threatened to strike when he was at the bus station, didn't threatened this time, but actually attacked. He only managed to open the door and then retched the few things that remained in his empty stomach.

His companion seemed to notice that, well, how couldn't she?; and she was by his side in a second. She rubbed small circles on his back, in some way soothing him, and she whispered him comforting words while massaging his hair. Her actions seemed to calm him down and he raised his head to rest it on her shoulders after he finished vomiting. "I ruined your shoes." He told her miserably in what was left of his voice. She kept her ministrations and said, "Shh, it's okay. You'll buy me a new pair one day". She joked. And that had effect on Vaughn, who weakly smiled. "Come on," she said after she made sure he was done throwing up, "let's getcha out of here. Okay?" he nodded. "Great."

She, again, helped him to sit, and then she took them to an old and abandoned building. She parked her car, checking again for possible intruders; she helped him to get out. 'Six stories." He thought.

She took him gently by his arms and stopped a second to touch his cheek and noticed he was warm in spite the cold around them, but she didn't mention it. He raised his head to look up, then sighed, but that caused him pain over the pain he was already feeling.

"Where are we?" He asked her. "Somewhere in the middle of nowhere" She said to him. He smiled again. That was the second time he smiled in less than an hour today. Maybe it was the second time in days. Both times he was with her. "Don't worry," She told him "you're safe here." She caressed his upper arm to reaffirm her statement. "Okay." He said someway resigned, and someway convinced.

She kept her grip on his arm while they were going upstairs. They were going slowly, really slowly, but that didn't do anything to help Vaughn's exhaustion; his feet weighed a ton each and everything around him was spinning. He slid to the floor before she could catch him. "Mike!!!!" she instantly went to him, but it was too late. He was already on the floor. She put her arm around him and tried to carry him the rest of the way, but she couldn't handle him, he was much heavier than her. He was like 170 pounds against the barely 98 of hers. She gave up struggling, and decided it was better if she went upstairs and got some help. She did so. She flew through the stairs, desperately needing to get there, and got to a brick wall. She pulled out one of the bricks out and got a key resting inside the rectangle. She ran through the hall and opened a door. She crossed her fingers, hopping she could find who she was looking for. She checked the place and was about to give up and try to bring Vaughn upstairs by herself, when she heard the bathroom door open. "Thank God" she exclaimed to herself. Then she headed for the bathroom. Once there she noticed it was empty, so she went to a room that seemed to be used as a kitchen, and found a young man in his mid twenties, with the looks of a full time skater boy, piercings covering most of his nose and eyebrows, and tattoos hidden under a long-sleeved T-shirt. "You need to be more careful." She brought him back from his mind. "One could easily break into this place and do things with you and you wouldn't even notice." He looked up to her, a smile on his face, reaching his eyes before it reached his lips. "I knew it was you." He told her self-confidently. "When there's a creepy silence, it's always you." He reached out and kissed her on the nose. "Do I really have to say 'wassup and shit'?" He inquired. "I need your help." He sighed when he heard those words. "I know it's been difficult, Nick, but right now I need you to come around and gimme a hand. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't life-or-death important". The young man held her gaze, trying to read her true intentions, trying to decode her, trying to know if what she was saying was true. He determined it was. "What kind of mess did you get yourself into this time?" He scratched his head. "I really can't waste any more time explaining to you; thinking about it, I don't even know it myself." She sighed. "I need you to come down with me," When she saw his confused look, she elaborated. "There's this guy downstairs, he's badly injured, and he needs your help. I didn't know where else to go. this is the safest place for both of us right now." "Where is he?" He asked her.

She guided him to where Vaughn was lying unconscious. He checked on Vaughn quickly before sliding a hand around his waist and gesturing to the girl to mirror his movements.

"This guy's in a pretty bad shape." He waited until she was correctly positioned under Vaughn's upper body. "I know you like to trash men out; but, for Cobain's sake, Leon, I've never seen you leave anyone them like this before." "Yeah, you're right. Not like this, only worse." She replied. "Oh yeah".

The two of them carried Vaughn upstairs and eased him onto a mattress. Nick had nothing better to lay Vaughn down.

Nick immediately began unbuttoning Vaughn's coat and shirt. Then, he continued tugging his undershirt out to get more access to the wound. "Nice cologne" He said sarcastically after a little while. "Yeah, I perceived that earlier, but I guess he hasn't taken a shower in a couple of days. And it seems he's been on the run, sweating and everything, so I decided to let it pass. I didn't mention that he stinks." She said. "Where did you find this piece of junk, anyway?" Nick asked while taking the wig and the hat off of Vaughn's head. "Don't let him fool you, man, he looks much better when he's clean and without a bullet inside his guts." He could sense that the 'Way much better' was implied. "Is he one of your 'invisible buddies'?" He asked her again, still not taking his eyes off of Vaughn. "Kinda." She took a glance to Vaughn then continued talking. "He's a CIA officer." "One of the spy boys???" "He's what you can call 'the Intel guy'. He has a brilliant mind, though he's been underestimated as a field agent by everyone, even himself. He has kept himself tied in an office but between you and me, he's very skilled. He could be a great field agent if he allowed himself to. Trust me, I've seen him before. He can trick you with his bright smile, and that looks of his, and make you think he's inoffensive, but just when he's got you where he wants you, he strikes." "Sounds like someone I know." He said looking at her, with a smile. She smiled back.

They stopped the banter before it began, when Nick took off a pair of gloves he put on before he started checking on Vaughn. He went to another room and came back with a few things that Leon could make out as medicine instruments.

Nick put the gloves back on, and took an scalpel and was about to cut Vaughn's wound open, when he stopped and asked the girl beside him " You think he's gonna mind if I do this without any anesthesia?" "Not now, he's pretty much out of it. But he will when he wakes up." "Okay." He put the scalpel back with the rest of his instruments. "I don't have anything strong enough, but I guess I could numb the flesh around it." "Dude, do whatever you can, as fast as you can, he's bleeding his guts out!" He went to his bag and took out some local anesthesia and applied it. "You're freaking out? You've never freaked out before, and lemme tell ya, I know you've seen worse injuries." "Yeah, but it never was someone I knew before." she responded. Nick knew that wasn't true. He could perceive some strange vibe going on between those two. But he didn't mind. He had a job to do. After he finished with the anesthesia, Nick took the scalpel again and cut a small incision open in Vaughn's belly. He could feel the heat radiating from his patient's skin, and knew there was an infection knocking at the door. It just had to wait until he could take the bullet out. He washed the wound clean and wiped some of the blood with gauze. Then, he inserted blindly his fingers into the wound to feel where the bullet could be.

Leon couldn't resist observing Vaughn's flesh been torn apart, even if that meant saving his life. She went to the kitchen-like room and waited there if Nick needed her.

After what felt like an eternity, Nick went to Leon, telling her he was lucky enough to take the bullet out, but he couldn't tell how much damage it has caused. Vaughn was losing a lot of blood, and he was running a high fever. Nick told her that they needed to take Vaughn to a hospital before it was too late. Because he didn't like the alternative.

"You're the alternative." She told him. "Michael told me he couldn't go to a hospital, which means, someone is looking for him." She breathed in. "Michael came to me. He must've been pretty desperate to do it. He knows it's dangerous. Which means he's caught, he's dead. You're the only one who can help him, you and no one else." "I'm not a doctor!" He exclaimed. "You smarter than a lot of doctors I know." "He needs a real doctor." "I've seen you doing this with your eyes closed! How can you tell me you can't help him?" "I would if I had the right medicaments, equipment, I don't know, anything besides an scalpel, a stethoscope, and thermometer, and a box of band- aids!" He looked at her, straight in her eyes, letting her know it wasn't he didn't want to help Vaughn; he was frustrated by the fact of not being able to do anything else, not like that. He was practically working with his fingernails. "Tell me what you need, and I'll get it for you." He said stubbornly. "It's not that easy!!!!" He ran his hands through his blue-dyed hair. "You can't go around stealing medical equipment and act like nothing happened! You're gonna get yourself caught!"

She was about to yell her protests when he started speaking louder than her. "You told me we have to maintain a low profile. No matter what, and now you're breaking your own rules? Open your eyes, missy, low profile, was what your friend over there was trying to do! You're gonna screw him over. You're gonna screw all of us!!!" "I'm not going to let him die!" She yelled at his friend. She took a pen from the counter and gave it to Nick. "Now, write down what you need to save him." She gave him an intimidating look that made chills run through Nick's spine. He sighed and took a piece of paper and started writing a list that included among others some antibiotics, painkillers, anti allergies medicine, bags of Saline Solution, blood and IV's tubes. . "Thank you." She told him in a fake sweetness. He hid his face in his hands and she left not before kneeling in front of Vaughn's still body. She gently squeezed his shoulder before she left.

Nick tried to keep Vaughn as comfortable as he could with the little things he had. He brought a bowl full of water and cloths with him in an attempt of lowering Vaughn's fever a few degrees. But he knew he needed antibiotics, and he was silently praying Leon hurry up.

To be a good Spy, you have to be a good thief. Leon knew that. She trusted her skills as an agent and trusted much more his skills as a thief.

She went to a pharmacy, disguised as a nun of course, and bought the required medications. When she didn't found some of the ones on Nick's list, she implied you have to present a doctor's order to buy those. So she headed to a hospital, posed as a nurse, and completed her "shopping". She had to go there anyway, she had to broke into the blood bank and steal a few thousands cc's of blood.

She successfully gathered everything on Nick's list, and went to the abandoned building. She knew, deep inside, that those things were just the minimum required to help Vaughn, that Vaughn needed to go to a hospital, to have some X-rays done, and blood work, but the things she gathered had to be enough for now.

Leon headed to Nick's place again, and gave him a bag with all the medicines and a container with the blood. She knew beforehand Vaughn's blood type; in fact, she had that information for some time now.

Nick did what he had to do, and administered the antibiotics after inserting an IV in Vaughn's right arm. Leon had told him to put it there, because of Vaughn's left-handedness.

"Let's just hope this is enough and he's strong enough to hang on." He told her. "Want something to eat?" He was trying to erase that worrying glance out of her blue eyes. "After what I just saw? You crazy, man?" he thought she was teasing, but after seeing her face, he just shrugged. "I still don't know how you used to do this everyday." She patted his arm, and stood up. "Where are you going?" He asked her. "I'm going home, get a shower and dress up. I'm going out." "Can we stop being neurotics and paranoids for just one day?" "I have a date." She shrugged. "I can't cancel it." And she left.

She drove to her apartment and did exactly what she told Nick she was going to do. She took off her clothes, got a shower dried her hair and picked up a very provocative dressed to wear. She applied a lot of make up and her favorite perfume and left again.

Less than an hour later, she was back at the abandoned building. Nick was not surprised to her again. He knew exactly what she meant when she said 'she had a date'. He knew she wanted to spend the night watching Vaughn's progress and she needed an explainable reason to spend the night out of her apartment. They both knew she had been watched, that there was cameras inside and outside her apartment and her building. So, if anyone were watching her, they would easily assume she actually had a date, because she always played with the rules. At least she made them think so.

Vaughn didn't spend a good night. He was delirious from the high temperature, and Nick was trying everything possible to bring it down. He and Leon took turns to stay by Vaughn's side.

They had opted for take off Vaughn's clothes and give him several sponge baths with cold water when the antibiotics were not acting as fast as they expected them to. And it seemed to work. The fever didn't go away immediately but it wasn't in a dangerous level. The antibiotics should kick in soon, liberating Vaughn from one of his distresses.

Nick checked up on Vaughn every little while; to make sure he wasn't getting worse. He knew he couldn't expect a speedy recovery, but he was sure as hell he wasn't going to let Vaughn die.

The next couple of days were exhausting like running a marathon. Vaughn was unconscious most of the time. He revolved in his dreams and moaned a lot. His eyes fluttered open a couple of times, but not for long enough to be counted as 'regaining consciousness'. He said a number of things neither of the two younger people could make out. They could understand a few words and names though.

Leon struggled between her desire or need of taking care of Vaughn and her need to survive and keep doing her job. But she wanted to hear the whole story about why Vaughn was in that kind of trouble.

Vaughn finally woke up to an unknown young man. He was trying to speak, but he couldn't find his voice. He tried to shrug the sleep from his tired eyes, but he was failing to do so. He tried to speak again and he heard the man talking to him.

"Don't tried to speak," he told him. "You've been asleep for the last two days, and your mouth and throat must be dry as hell." The man paused and went to get some water. "Here. It would make it better." He helped Vaughn to take little sips.

"Where am I?" Vaughn weakly asked. His mind was a little blurry, and he didn't remember where he was or how he got there. "If I told you, I'd have to kill ya". Vaughn looked at himself then to the man in front of him. "It won't make you sweat." Nick smiled. When he was about to tell Vaughn what he knew, he felt someone clearing her throat. He turned around and saw Leon leaning against a doorframe.

"I thought we agreed you were gonna call me the minute he woke up!" She walked to the two men. "He just did." Nick replied. "Just a few minutes ago."

Vaughn was trying really hard to stay awake, but he felt so tired and he wanted to go to sleep. But he also wanted to focus on the two people standing in front of him. He had the feeling he knew one of them. His suspicions were confirmed when the girl leaned forward and gently brushed a hand against his forehead.

"Hey!" She whispered. "Leon." He said. It wasn't a question, it was an affirmation. "Yeah." She tenderly smiled to him. "It is good to know that you still remember my name." "That's one of the few things I could never forget." Once he finished his reply, a cough fit came to pay a visit. Nick immediately kneel in front of him and help him to a sitting position, hoping that would be enough to alleviate Vaughn's breathing. And it seemed to work.

After Vaughn recovered from his cough fit, he noticed the young man for the first time. He saw him when he woke up, but his mind was a little fuzzy. Now his mind was clearing enough to know he hadn't met the guy before. Leon became aware of Vaughn's confusion and acted instantly.

"This is Nick." She gestured to the young man beside her. "And Nick, this is Michael Vaughn." She noticed Vaughn's frown. "Don't worry, he's on our side. He's been fighting to save your ass the last couple of days without even know who you are." "I'm pretty sure you gave him some details. Am I right?" Vaughn was grinning. Leon thought that a grinning Vaughn was good. "Yeah, well, I told him you were a CIA officer." "And an underestimated field agent." Nick stated. "Well, kinda." Leon smiled.

Vaughn's grinning changed to a saddened expression. He sighed. "What?" Leon asked him, concern back to her eyes. "Nothing." He said. "It's just I've forgotten how good it is to see you smile."

She smiled again. And Vaughn smiled back. But what he truly was thinking was about Sydney's smiles. How her dimples danced when her face featured one of those smiles. They always melt his heart.

But then, after an attack of sweetness, he was reminded of the danger he was, and how he felt like someone he knew betrayed him. He remembered how Sydney suggested him that they had to go to Germany before going back to the United States and how he had been hunted there. And he also remembered calling Weiss and asking him for help and just a few moments later, he had become a prey again.

"He's in Jupiter again." Vaughn was brought back from his thoughts by the sound of Nick's voice. Vaughn remembered his wound and he looked down to see if it was there and if it'd been just a bad dream. He saw the bandages and the IV he failed to notice before. "How." He was trying to make coherent sentences despite his newly blurring mind. "Did you get a doctor?" "Yes, I did." Leon told him. "You're looking at him right now."

Vaughn scanned Nick with his eyes, from head to toes. How could a kid with piercings and tattoos all over his visible skin and blue hair with pants two-sizes bigger could be a doctor?

"Nick is a full time skater and a MD in his leisure time." "You're a doctor?" Vaughn asked incredulous. "I'm not. I wanted to be one though." "Then, why.?" "I was in med school, but we had an inconvenient a couple of years ago and I had to vanish." "I don't think you're old enough to be premed." "I'm 25." "Still" "Nick's a genius. He graduated from high school when he was 15 and got into college right away. He made it to med school at very young age because he was one of the brightest minds of his generation, and if you ask me, I think he was smarter than his teachers. He seemed to be ahead of them always." "What happened?" Vaughn asked. "I figured out something I shouldn't have and I was perceived as a high risk, so, someone put a hit man on me." "Or a 'hit woman'" Vaughn added looking at Leon. "Yeah, well, it would be good if no one finds out." Leon said dismissively. "SO you've been hiding here since then." Vaughn ignored her. "I've moved a couple of times, but here's the safest place I could find. You're okay here." Nick reassured Vaughn. "You let him go?" Vaughn turned to Leon. "The guy was right. Besides, he grew on me. What can I say? I thought I could use him sometime, you know, a payoff; so, I let him live. He didn't deserve it." "HEY!!!" Nick slightly hit Leon on her upper arm.

Vaughn could see two people who cared about each other. They were like brother and sister. Vaughn smiled at them.

"SO what's your story?" Nick asked him. "Huh?" "I know how I ended up here, how did you end up here?" "It's a long story." "We have plenty of time. Now, spit." Leon said.

Vaughn sighed again and turned his head so he wasn't facing Nick and Leon. He recollected all the images of his inferno. The mission, the stop by Germany, the Kaiser, Vasquez, Arizona. He tried to sit, but then he felt pain again. Nick and Leon were by his side and helped him to get comfortable. He waited to pain to recede and he started talking.

"Leon already told you I'm a CIA officer, but there's a bunch of things I can't tell you." He told Nick "Don't worry about me, I won't tell anyone. It's not like I have anyone to tell, anyway." The younger man responded. Vaughn looked Leon in the eye. "It's okay, Mike. Like I told you, he's one of us."

"I was supposed to go to a mission in India with this other agent. We were supposed to take some information about some weird vaccines these guys were developing in a lab/base." Vaughn took a small breath. Then he continued. "I was strange, because I'm not a field agent, I work with intelligence. So it was kind of disconcerting when they told me I had to go with the other agent."

"It seemed to be an easy operation: it was one of those get-in-get-out missions. So we did as we were told. All that time I felt like we were being watched. I felt like there was someone there, and I couldn't tell if it was true or if it was just a hunch."

"But anyone attacked us. We came back to our hotel and we were getting preparing to leave the country. When we were at the airport, my partner told me that we had to switch planes in Germany, that we weren't going to get straight back to America, and that we had to take a commercial flight from there. When I was in Germany, I saw this guy at the airport, but I thought it was my overactive imagination; but when I saw him again when I was doing some shopping, I knew that my worries were right. I knew I was in danger." Vaughn clutched his arm around his waist, but didn't stop talking.

"I was trying to escape, but this guy had a mission: killing me. I ran and hid, but it wasn't enough because the guy shot me when I was running away. I didn't realize I'd been shot. I needed to get out of Germany, but I couldn't because whoever was after me, knew I was CIA, and knew exactly where I was and where I could go." He turned to Leon again. " I went to see your friend, the Kaiser," "Really?!" Leon smiled at the mention of that name. "How's he?" "He asked me to tell you 'the skies were no longer blue since you left'." Vaughn closed his eyes a minute and continued speaking with his eyes closed. "I heard you talking about this guy once, about how he was your guy to go to, but too dangerous to do it, and I don't know how I remembered it, but I was desperate. It was cold, I had a hole in my abdomen and I barely speak German. Everyone would know I was a foreign guy." "And he helped you?" Leon asked amazed. "He did. I used your password about the cigarette box and let me tell you again, those passwords were the stupidest passwords I've ever heard. I don't know how you people don't get caught." "Yeah, like you don't use lame passwords yourself." She rolled her eyes. "Besides, in this business the key is flying low. The simplest things are always the most important. It's always good to be subtle. I don't think you go around saying 'hi, I'm a member of the US intelligence and I was told to contact you and asked you about those missiles you've been pointing to us the last 30 years."

Vaughn would have chuckled if that didn't mean he had to waste more energy. But he did smiled a little. "Anyway, the Kaiser helped me to get out of Germany safely. But I had to make a stop in Spain with another stupid password," He saw Leon rolling her eyes again. "I mean, subtle codes about roses and a guy named Vasquez. He helped me with my injury and put me on a plane to come back to the U.S. But they didn't tell me that I had to travel in a container and I would be landing in a private airport in Arizona." "And then you came to NY". Nick said matter-of-factly. "No, I didn't." He looked up to them. "I called a friend of mine, another CIA officer to tell him everything. I asked him for help, but I'm not sure if he did. He told me to go to the airport and to take a commercial flight back to LA, but when I was there, I saw another man, he was following me too, and it wasn't to give me a telegram. I evaded and tried to get away. But I saw a whole team looking for me. I got out of there as soon as possible and ended up in a bus station. I bought a ticket for the first bus leaving. I didn't care where it was going; I just wanted to get out of there. When the bus stopped, I realized we were somewhere, I didn't ask where, but I saw a bus to New York, and the rest in history."

"Do you know who's after you?" Nick asked him. "I'm not sure." "But you have a few ideas." Nick didn't ask. He stated. "I don't know. No one is supposed to know about me. My job is very dangerous, but no one outside the CIA can relate me to my job. People know I work for the Government, but they're obvious to what I do. What I do is classified." "You think your friends at the CIA are behind this?" It was Leon who spoke. "I-they might, I don't know." Vaughn rubbed the back of his hand on his tired eyes. "I feel like I don't know who's my ally or who's my enemy. Too much coincidences, you know?" "If you can't trust your own friends, who then?" Nick alleged. " I need to find out who set me up. I need to know if I became a security menace overnight, I need to know what I did wrong." Vaughn was starting to get short of breath again. He was starting to lose it. "It's okay, man." Nick was reassuring him while he was injecting something in his IV. "Nick and Leon would help you out. You just rest. Let us take care of everything."

Whatever Nick gave Vaughn was helping him to ease the pain, but it was making him sleepy. Vaughn didn't want to go to sleep; he wanted to figure out what was happening. But on the other hand, he was thankful for the rest.

Once Vaughn was claimed by a restless slumber, Nick went to Leon. "What do you think?" He asked her. "D'you think the CIA guys want to get rid of your friend?" "His partner told him to go to Germany, WHERE there was a hit man waiting for him. Back in the U.S, his friend told him to the airport WHERE there's this other guy waiting to do the same thing than the guy in Germany, and a bunch of other guests to the party." She crossed her arms, hugging herself. "I don't know, it seems pretty convincing to me." "Can I ask you something?" "Sure." She said. "Who's this Kaiser guy?" "He's an German operative, he falsifies high documents and steal information from others. He's the regular spy. We meet when I went there the second time. He got into trouble, I mean real troubles, and I save his butt. Twice. He said he owed me big time, that I could go to him anytime I needed help. We communicated through a cigarette box dropped in a trashcan. I got myself in a major mess; my cover had been blown up. They were gonna kill me. I needed to get out of Germany and he helped me out. He told me to use the same cigarette box as a code, anytime I needed a friendly hand. I'm amazed Michael remembered the whole cigarette deal." She started to walk to the door, but he stopped her. "Where are you going?" "Take care of him. I'm gonna find out if there's any new messages on my answering machine." She left.

Back in Los Angeles, Sydney was waiting for her phone to start ringing and hear the "Joey's pizza?" she usually heard. But nothing. She had been back from London for 24 hours, and she hasn't heard yet from her 'Guardian Angel', she was starting to worry.

She agreed to meet with Will at Francie's restaurant. When she was there, she told him about her mission with Vaughn and how they had to split in Germany to save her cover in SD-6. She told Will that she was expecting to hear from Vaughn, to see if he'd gotten home safe. They danced around that topic for a while, but moved on to another less conflicting. They were discussing about Saturday morning's cartoons when her cell phone rang.

She looked up to Will and found an anxious gaze matching her own. But she was disappointed when she heard her father's voice telling her to meet him at the Warehouse.

She shook her head; letting Will know that it wasn't Vaughn who called. "I gotta go." She told him and got up. Will saw her leaving.

Jack Bristow was leaning against an old table when he saw his daughter arriving. "What's wrong?" She asked in a very anxious voice. She was still walking into the place when she finished the sentence. "It's Vaughn. We have a problem."


	3. Five Aces

BOUNCING VAUGHN

PART THREE: FIVE ACES.

Disclaimer: Not mine; never will. Except for those guys you don't recognize. I wouldn't mind if I had Vaughn for one day, though.

Please Read and Review, no matter how bad or how good, just let me know what you think.

"What you mean 'we have a problem'?" Sydney asked his father, who was surprisingly worried.

"He was supposed to go to the Operations Center one hour after his plane landed. He never did." Jack was about to add something else when Sydney cut him off.

"Why wasn't I told he was missing?" Sydney didn't have as much patience as her father thought. "He's been missing for days and you didn't tell me???"

"Sydney!" Her father practically yelled her name. He needed her to listen to him, what he was about to tell her was very important.

"Sydney," He continued once she directed her gaze to him. "Don't be naïve. We didn't call you because it would've ruined your cover with SD-6. Sloane would have known you were a double agent the second your phone rang. You have a mission more important than everything else, more important than a few casualties."

Sydney couldn't believe her ears. "This is the same man who risked everything in order to get the serum that would save Vaughn? Is this the same guy who told me, and I'm quoting here, 'We can't lose Vaughn'?" Her anger was visible in her eyes. "I can't believe you, dad. You know damn well how important Vaughn's been in all this. Now, tell me what the CIA's doing to retrieve Vaughn." She stopped when she noticed her father was avoiding her eyes. "Why do I think there's more?"

Jack still had his eyes glued to the floor, but when he heard his daughter's question. He knew what he was about to say was going to shatter her, to break the little certainty she had in who really were the good guys.

Leon got home and took off her clothes. She spent sometime in the bathtub. She felt like she needed to relax. She needed to concentrate on Vaughn's ordeal. She needed to have a clear mind if she was going to play Leon: International Girl of Mystery.

After her bath, Leon wrapped herself in a towel before stepping into her bathrobe. She went to the living room and checked her phone messages. One of them said just one phrase: Five Aces Golf Resort. She knew what that meant and she instantly went to her bedroom and grabbed her laptop.

She brought the laptop with her to the living room and put the computer on the coffee table. She opened it and checked her e-mails. She went straight to the Junk mail, and opened one by one, trying to decode which one had her new mission encrypted in one of those emails.

Ten minutes later, she screamed "Bingo!" as she found what she was looking for. She opened the email, a free screen savers add, and she did her trick to decipher what was it about. She winced when she learned it.

Nick was trying not to disturb Vaughn. He'd finally reached a peaceful sleep and Nick was pleased for that. He had been next to the mattress that passed as a bed, virtually all the time Leon'd been gone; checking every now and then Vaughn's vitals.

He felt the click of the door and knew that Leon was back. Nick took a look at Vaughn and went to Leon.

"Wilma!" He greeted her.

"Hi, Fred." She said casually. "How's Pebbles?" Nick knew she meant Vaughn.

"Sleeping. Let me tell ya, I saw Pebbles making out with Bam-Bam behind Dino's house."

"You're joking." She said. "I take it he's doing much better." A smirk breeding in her face. "Is he?" She worried when she saw Nick's face change.

"Yes and no" Nick responded. "He finally fell asleep, not because of the drugs, but because of him."

"But."

"His fever's still there. It goes down but only for a second. I'm afraid of secondary effects."

"What- what you mean?"

"I can give him stronger antibiotics, bring the fever down, but I could also worsen his condition with these antibiotics, because in some cases, depending on the patient's state, they could cause bleeding or anemia; and that's the last thing he needs right now. I need a controlled environment, somewhere I can treat him for everything and be prepared for everything."

"We can't take him to a hospital." She shook her head.

"I know this guy in the Bronx, he could get ev-"

"I said NO!" Nick pursed his lips. Leon realized she had yelled her last word and grabbed Nick by his arm, pulling him away from Vaughn. Sleeping or not, she didn't want to tell him what she discovered in front of Vaughn.

"I know we're not doing him any good by refusing to take him to the doctor he desperately needs, but we would make it worse if we do."

"I know that, it's just."

"No, you don't. You have no idea, trust me." She interrupted her friend.

"What are you talking about?"

"I discovered who's wanting to kill Vaughn."

That statement made Nick looked at her blue eyes. "You did?" She nodded. He was thrilled to know that the mystery enemies had a face and that meant Leon could take them down and Vaughn wouldn't have to die on him. "Who?"

"Me." She firmly told her friend. She was hugging herself, the way she always did when she was dogged about something, the way that scared the hell out of him. He discerned that because he knew her so well.

/ Back in LA, Sydney couldn't believe what her father had told her just moments before. Her mouth was opened and she was trying to make out words, but her voice wasn't helping her. She couldn't imagine Vaughn's lifeless body. She dropped heavily over a chair and held her father's gaze silently asking him for an explanation.

Jack couldn't believe it himself. How could he explain his daughter if he didn't believe it either? He took a deep breath and started talking.

"Sydney, Agent Vaughn's been scheduled to be 'eliminated'." He couldn't meet her eyes.

"Eliminated?" Sydney quizzed her father, still not totally finding her voice.

"What? You? What can you possible be talking about?" She asked after regaining her self-control.

"There's an order: kill Vaughn if he's seen." He finally met her eyes.

"Who wants to kill him?"

"We do."

"WHAT????" She got up. "We who?" Realization came to her. "You're telling me the CIA wants Vaughn dead?" Jack nodded. "Why? Wait a minute. I have to be the one who kills him?" She was past logic.

"NO!!" Jack put his hand in his pockets. "They don't want you to do it. Your job is to sabotage every mission you have at SD-6, stop them from getting classified information and stealing secrets. Why do you think they would use you for something like this?"

"Then, who do they want?"

"Me." She gasped when she meet her father's cold glance. He noticed Sydney's reaction and he tried to explain her. "Sydney," He said in a comforting voice. "There's a group of. 'operatives' under the CIA payroll whose job is to take down possible threats that can't be deal with regular or standard procedures. Nobody knows about them, and if they're caught they have to deny they work for the agency the same time the agency has to deny any knowledge about them. They're spread around the world, they supposed to be unnoticed."

"You mean assassins?" Sydney asked again.

"Yeah, you can call them like that." Jack said in an even voice.

"And you're one of them. You've been ordered to kill Vaughn." She didn't ask.

Jacks waited a minute before answering. "Yes."

"But I thought American intelligence didn't commit murder." Syd repeat the words she heard some other time.

"We do when we have to."

"This shit again???" Nick threw his arms in the air and got the furthest away he could. "You can't go around killing people like that!!! It's NOT healthy!" He was hyperventilating. Maybe having a flashback.

"Nick, look- look at me!" When she got his attention she continued. "I'm gonna pretend I haven't seen Vaughn. No one else knows we keep in touch. And no one needs to know. I'm gonna find out why they want him dead. But until then, I need your help. I need you to concentrate!"

"Okay." Nick mumbled. "Okay. What do you want me to do?"

"I need you to stay here and take care of him while I'm gone. Do not leave the building until I say so. Do not try to contact me in any way." He was starting to protest, but she didn't give him the chance to. "I know you're a good hacker, but the CIA is good too. Normally, they wouldn't pay attention to my emails and phone calls unless they were out of the ordinary, but right now I have them on my back and it'll be like that until they have Vaughn's head. The surveillance in my place's been tightened up. It took me forever to get here." She came closer to him, trying to appease him. She didn't want Nick to freak out in a crucial moment.

"Nick, are we clear?" She knew he'd listened every single word, but she waited for his affirmation. He looked up at her. She could see his comprehension in his brown eyes. "It's going to be alright. I won't let anything happen to any of you, you know that? I promised I would keep you safe once, and I'm promising again. I know it's been a bitch, the life I've forced you to live, but you know I did that to keep you alive. I know sometimes you wish you could go back home and take back your old life when nothing mattered, when you were submerged in your books and weird experiments. I wish I could give it all back to you, I wish I wasn't the root of all your problems, but I AM. And I'm sorry for that. And that's why I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you out of trouble." She paused a moment and looked again to his eyes wanting him to know that she was for real. "Do you believe me?" She had a hold of his shoulders.

"You're the only thing I believe in." They could see their emotions in each other's eyes. They could read the other the way they read an open book. They embraced each other, a way to tell themselves they were there if they were needed.

Leon disengaged herself from Nick's arms and left.

"I'm going to pretend I'm on alert in case Vaughn shows up in town. They don't need to be aware he's already here." She said in her way out.

"Be careful" Nick yelled after her.

"As always, baby." She smiled. Nick couldn't see her smiling, but he knew she was.

He smiled himself.

In LA, Sydney couldn't concentrate on her job. She was assigned by SD-6 to go to South Africa to do something she didn't remember. Lucky her, her father was at the briefing and made sure he told her everything all over again.

More lucky, given the fact that his father had self-appointed as her handler, and she could keep on discussing the details to prevent Vaughn's execution.

They met again at the warehouse. Jack was already waiting for her when she got there. After telling her what Sloane wanted her to do in South Africa and her counter mission, she asked him about Vaughn.

"Did you get the chance to investigate if it was a bogus order?" She was eager to know.

"The order's still there. No one has retracted. It seems pretty real." He answered his daughter's question but was also running possible scenarios in his mind. It wouldn't be entirely possible that the CIA wanted an important officer who has done nothing than his job out of the picture. Of course, Vaughn had ignored orders before, but it was because he was helping Sydney or Jack himself in a matter of great deal. There had to be another explanation. He scratched the back of his head. "Unless."

"Unless what?" Syd wanted her father to get to the point already. She was tired of running around in circles.

"A mole." He looked up to her. "There must be a mole inside the agency, that's the only reasonable explanation. The CIA probably has no idea of what's going on"

"A mole? SD-6? You think SD-6 knows about Vaughn?

"That doesn't make any sense either." Jack disagreed with Syd. "If Sloane knew about you and Vaughn, he would've killed you two immediately. There was no point on letting you go to London and then back here. You would've been terminated with no mercy at all." He paused and mumbled something else that Sydney caught like 'It has to be us'.

"Dad, shouldn't the CIA director give the approval to something like this? I don't think something this big would be overlooked by the agency."

"It could be, Syd."

"Dad." She was urging him to speak.

"Look, we have this system. We communicated by keywords. Something like your 'Joey's pizza'. We got our orders by emails, Spam, or encoded in the newspaper or a picture in a fake website. We don't get a direct order from our superiors. The director consents it and a tech team encrypts a picture on the things I mentioned and someone let us know when to be prepared. Once we receive the message, we assume the CIA has total knowledge about the situation. We don't ask, we do as we are told." He paused to let Sydney digest everything he just said.

Sydney frowned her face, and all her worries became visible.

"What I'm trying to tell you here Syd, is that someone may have played us. Someone inside the agency with high clearance, enough to know that a group like this exists and enough to know how to put us to work."

"So, if this mole is inside the CIA, he could have sent the message to every operative who works with your group without the CIA knowing about it. Do you guys report to someone?"

"We send an encrypted message after every mission reporting how it went. Sometimes we use words or short sentences. We used 'none' as the subject of our messages when the mission was accomplished and 'Credit card pre- approved' when we failed, which, by the way is not very often."

"Who has access to your 'system'?" Sydney inquired.

"Sydney, it could be anyone. If anyone has the knowledge, it wouldn't be so difficult to post a matter like this in our system. From the woman who serves the coffee to the CIA director, and I don't think he has anything to do with this."

"You're being very helpful, dad."

"I'm meeting with Devlin in an hour. I'm going to tell him about this. I don't think he's our mole, because he seemed truly concerned when he learned about Vaughn's disappearance. He knows who can gain access to the computer system and if that doesn't throw any results, we can always use the tapes of the video cameras or a computer expert to help us to determinate the location from where the file was sent. I heard it's about a virtual fingerprint or something." Jack frowned in confusion.

"What do I do until then?"

"You do your mission as usual, live your life normally." He saw Sydney opening her mouth in protest, but he spoke firmly making her understand the danger of the situation. "Sydney, you can't make up an excuse to get you out of your duties at SD-6 like it were a high school. You can't show up in front of Sloane with a note from your doctor to bail you out of gym class. You won't do agent Vaughn any good dead."

She nodded and he told her that everything was going to be all right. He knew she was concerned about Vaughn, but he couldn't afford to lose her too. He could disguise his feelings of a concerned father to anyone but himself.

Jack left to meet with Devlin and Sydney stayed at the warehouse for a couple of minutes. In there, she thought she saw Vaughn approaching, she smiled, but then realized it was her mind playing tricks. She started sobbing like she never did before.

Vaughn woke up again. And again, he woke up to a confused Nick.

Nick was sitting on a bench in front of the mattress where Vaughn was laying.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Like I've been shot." Vaughn answered. He was trying to sit up, but his pain was making him think otherwise. Once he managed to domain his pain, he looked up to Nick. "Where's Leon?"

"Oh. She was required back at the 'office'" Nick joked. That earned him a small chuckle from Vaughn. "Seriously, how are you feeling?" Nick back on his doctor-mode.

"It hurts like hell, a bit chilly and with a headache the size of Texas."

"That good, huh?" Nick joked again. Then, he reached for the thermometer and inserted it in Vaughn's right ear. "You still have fever, but it's not as bad as it was before. We'll worry if it comes up again, okay?" Vaughn nodded.

Nick continued to check Vaughn's blood pressure, breathing and heartbeats. Then, he proceeded to uncover Vaughn's wound. It was still a little reddish, but not the intense red he had noticed a couple of days back. He smiled to himself content with the work the antibiotics were doing. Vaughn might be not ready to run the marathon, but he was presenting a better semblance.

Vaughn was still pale, and had dark circles around his eyes. He had bloodshot eyes a few bruises on his face and around his lips, result of his high fever. He had stopped shaking and was more coherent. He still didn't have the strength to get up by himself, but Nick knew Vaughn was definitely getting better.

"Now, 'doctor', how am I doing? Am I out of the woods yet?" Vaughn's voice was a little weak and raspy, but had a resemblance to Vaughn's normal voice.

"You could say that, Mr. Vaughn." Nick said while re-bandaging Vaughn's abdomen. "I still would like to run some tests, a blood work, x-rays, but as far as I can tell, you're doing fine." He gave Vaughn a reassuring pat on his shoulder.

"Can I have a glass of water?" Nick nodded and got up to get the water. "How long Leon's been gone?" Vaughn asked after he took a sip.

"Less than 24 hours." Nick said matter of factly.

"What's she doing?"

"She's trying to investigate who wants your name on a tombstone. She said she'd let us know how she's doing."

"I hope she doesn't get herself into trouble." Nick could see Vaughn was genuinely preoccupied for Leon's welfare.

"She knows how to take care of herself. Don't worry about her." Nick told Vaughn, although he was worried about Leon too.

"I can't help it." Vaughn said. "I guess it's my nature."

Nick smiled. "How did you guys meet?"

"It was an accident." Nick frowned and Vaughn decided the kid had done a lot for him and he owed him a least the truth. "We met during her training. I was in training too. We worked together a couple of times, we just hit it off, you know. We were good friends. I was amazed by this little girl who was wise and made you think of an old soul trapped in a young body. I used to call her Tinker bell."

"Tinker bell? That was the fairy godmother. I think you meant to call her Peter Pan."

"No, I didn't. I thought Peter Pan would've been an improper nickname for a girl, so I went with Tinker bell."

"I never heard her mentioning you before. And tells me almost everything. "

"Yeah, well, I'm one of those few things she can't tell you about." Vaughn replied. "We were good friends and maybe we could have been something else, if we were given the time to be. Not when we met, because she was too young, but maybe a few years later. She was transferred to someplace else, and she was caught in this world already, so I figured out it would be better if I just let her go. She didn't need any kind of emotions in her new job, so when I heard she got it, I put distance between us." Vaughn half lied. He didn't want to tell Nick that he and Leon had a history.

"But you kept in touch."

"Yes, I did." Vaughn suddenly found the mattress really interesting. "You will understand with time, young man, that that girl is not easy to forget. She got herself nailed here." Vaughn touched his head with his index finger. ". and here." This time he touched his heart.

"I know what you're talking about." Nick sadly said.

"You like her, don't you?" Vaughn asked the younger man.

"In a platonic way. I mean, it's like be in love with wonder woman. You know you're falling for her, but you can't have her because she's not real. And you move on and find someone else to fall for." Nick met Vaughn's gaze. "I can't get involved in a relationship, because that would give me away. I need to be prepared to run any minute. No stings attached. My 'platonic affection' for Leon is more about need of human contact than a real attraction. A sense of normalcy."

"Tell me about it." Vaughn didn't mean Leon. He empathized with Nick because he was in the same place with Sydney. Almost. The difference was in Vaughn's denial and hunger for a normal life, a normal life he couldn't have with Sydney. And that was stopping him from going for everything Sydney could give him.

Vaughn was getting a little confused. He remembered how much he longed for Leon, and those feelings were getting mixed up with his current unspoken feelings for Sydney. Why he always had to fall for women he couldn't date?

"Earth to Mike. Earth to Mike." Nick was trying to snap Vaughn out of his thoughts. "What was that?" He asked.

"Just thinking." Vaughn replied. "Hey, can I use your bathroom?"

Nick helped Vaughn to the bathroom and left him alone to do what he needed to do. Nick also told Vaughn about a new toothbrush Leon brought the other night, and that he'd have a bowl with water if he needed to clean himself up. But he prohibited any attempt of showering. He said the wound couldn't be moistened.

Vaughn called Nick when he finished brushing his teeth and washing his face. Nick helped him back to bed.

"So, Nicholas," Vaughn wanted to have a distracting conversation. Something to take him out of his problems for a brief period of time. "How long has it been since you're here?"

"Five years." He answered. "And my name is not Nicholas." He added.

"But Leon calls you 'Nick'" Vaughn asked slightly confused.

"Yeah, she does, but 'Nick' is not short for 'Nicholas'" Nick explained. "It's short for Nicanor"

"You were name after." Vaughn found himself interested in this triviality.

"It's a saint." Nick said. "My grandmother was an immigrant from Latin America, and a devoted catholic. She named me after this saint. San Nicanor, she always said. She said he guarded him during her odyssey."

"That's nice." Vaughn said.

"Yeah, I think. I'm not so much a religious person." He looked down. "How about you, Mike?"

"Me neither." Vaughn mimicked Nick and looked down too.

Leon came back to Nick's building twelve hours after Vaughn woke up. She had already been out 24 hours before that. She was wearing a clown costume. That made Nick laughed at her for almost twenty minutes.

"I gotta tell ya, this time is much better than your last attempt of being a clown." He said when he saw some bird's crap on her shirt.

Leon was fuming. She shot him a glance that made him suppress his laughter. But when she turned her back at him, he couldn't help it and began giggling.

"Where's Michael?" She asked still a little mad.

"He's in the 'conference room ,'" Nick said, still keeping his distance.

"Playing with your Playstation again?"

"He's good at it. He kicked my ass. Twice." Nick was signaling it with his fingers. Although Leon couldn't see him.

"Good. I'm glad someone can do that." She was cold with him, Nick thought she was so business-like and that still frighten him a little.

"Did you find out something?" Nick asked.

"Yes, I did."

When they reach to the room Nick liked to call the conference room, they found Vaughn half asleep in one of Nick's rubber couches. He woke up when he felt two sets of eyes staring at him like they wanted to drill a hole on him.

"Hey sleepy head." Leon greeted him with a kiss on his forehead.

"Are you tired?" Nick asked him. "Don't you think it would be more comfortable if you slept on the mattress?"

"I was just taking a nap." Vaughn was trying to get up, but he did it the wrong way and it sent a wave of pain through his upper body.

"Hey! Easy man." Nick and Leon immediately knelt before him, but Vaughn waved his hand dismissively and took a few deep breaths.

"I'm okay,"He said. "I'm okay." He finally looked up. He tried to convince them he was getting better, because he really was.

"What've you got?" He rubbed his tired eyes. "And why you have that thing on?" He looked her unusual outfit.

"Hey, I'm trying to fool people so they can't find you, so gimme a break. Okay?"

"Sorry." Vaughn saw Nick giggling and noticed her shoulder and the stain on it but he decided to let it go.

Leon sat beside him. "Stop looking for your verdugo, compadre, because I learned your suspicions are true."

"You mean."

Leon cut him off. "The CIA want you dead." Her statement left him dead cold. "What could you possibly have done to piss your own people?" She almost yelled.

"Well, that's something I want to know." Vaughn replied.

"They don't do this everyday, you know?" She was looking at his eyes. "They don't kill their own people every week. The hell! Not even once every decade! The CIA only sentence an agent to death if they suspect the agent is immensely dangerous or if this agent has a hold of secrets that he wasn't supposed to have, or if they think he's put them on a situation where death is the only way out." She sighed. "I don't think you became a threat over night, not in a 'I'm gonna blow this building full of children and loving grandmas if you don't send me 10 billion dollars' kind of threat. And I don't think you're selling secrets either. So it must be because of your work. They could feel threatened because of something you learned or something you did." She took another pause. "So, WHAT THE HELL were you working on?"

Vaughn could feel her anger. "I don't think that's none of your business."

"That's crap!" She snapped at him. "You came here half dead, telling me to save that little French butt of yours, putting my life on the line, and instead of beating the crap out of you, I gave you a hand sentencing me and Nick to death, and I did it anyway. So the least you can do is come clean with me. Stop whining like a baby and start speaking."

Vaughn looked at her, a little mad because he felt it was wrong for her to be throwing him in the face the fact that she saved his life, but he also knew she was acting like that because she was concerned for the three of them. He closed his eyes and inhaled the dense air that seemed to be filling the atmosphere of the room. She took a cloth to take off her 'clown make up'.

"Have you ever heard of SD-6?" Leon nodded, but Nick seemed to be lost. Vaughn wanted to clarified it. "It's an agency that recruits agents making them think they will be working for the US government, when all they will be doing is stealing secrets of this government and sell them to a man who makes money with them." He wasn't able to meet their eyes. "One day, this woman came to us and told us she was working with SD-6 and she was willing to help us to bring them down."

Vaughn sighed again. "To make a long story short, this woman became a double agent for the CIA and I, without any previous experience, became her handler." He paused a minute to see their reactions and hoping that would buy him some time. When he saw none, he continued.

"I work with intelligence. I give her the counter missions, I know everything she knows about SD-6."

"You're helping her to bring them down." Leon said while rubbing her face clean.

"She's doing all the hard work, I'm the one who stays back home safe." Vaughn told his friends.

"You're like Charlie!" Nick interrupted them. "You know, Charlie's Angels?" When he saw the glares they were sending him, he backed off. "I'm just going to stand there and pretend I'm a stone."

"Go on." Leon urged Vaughn to retake the story.

"We can't be seen in public, because there's a security team following her almost all the time. We have to pretend we don't know each other. She can't be linked to a CIA officer because that would blow her cover at SD-6" He looked at Leon, who understood the situation. "She turned in his boss to a man we still don't know who he's really working for, to be killed. And she did it to save me. The guy began to work with the head of SD-6 and that's why I thought they were the ones after me in the first place."

Vaughn was starting to sound like he was running and talking at the same time. "But that didn't make any sense because he didn't knew who was the serum for and he hasn't seen me, well, not for a long time, and he doesn't know Sydney's a double agent or I'm her handler. That's when I started to get suspicious about the CIA. That and Weiss's advice."

"I got my new mission yesterday." She sat close to him. "You are my new mission. They alerted every operative around the world in case you got out of the country, but they paid home special attention. I guess they believe you're still inside the country." She hesitated a little. "They said 'Abort/postpone every previous mission. Center your attention on this one.'"

Their eyes met. They locked their glances for a long time. It was just a few minutes though. Many things to be said, many reassurances left alone in those glances. His forgiveness if she had to do it. Her unspoken promise to do whatever it took to keep him alive.

"What if they discover you?" He asked her with his eyes full of trepidation.

"They won't." She told him.

"Yes, they will. Sooner or later, they will."

"They haven't, and they won't." She grabbed his hand and put it between hers. "We've fooled them before, we can do it again."

"You will have to do it."

"No, I won't. They've been in the dark about us keeping in touch for the last six years." She tightened her hold on his hand.

"They'll link you to me."

"Don't you think that if they knew we're still friends, they would've sent a team here already?" She shifted their positions so he was facing her. "They haven't followed me. They think I'm looking for you this side of the country, they don't think I've been going out because I'm hiding you."

"What if they find out?" He wasn't able to look at her in the eye. "Huh? What do you think would happen if they find out I've been here, with you, all this time?" He finally found her eyes. "What do you think would happen if they learn this isn't the first time you haven't followed orders? What do you think they will do to you? Worse, what do you think they will do to Nick?"

Now she was the one who lowered her eyes.

"Do you think they going to pat your back and tell you to keep up with the good work?" He was trying to make her view his point. "You said it yourself, the CIA don't kill their own agents frequently, but they do it when things get out of control. From the point of view of anyone, you haven't been doing your job. You've been breaking the rules and letting your objectives slide like they were made of butter. You already let two of them go, don't you think they'd think you've let more go? They'd think you've let very dangerous people go around doing evil, merciless things like nothing else matters. They'll consider you a risk." He paused. "And the risks have to be eliminated."

"I don't care." She told him. "I'm not going to let them get you, no matter what's on stake."

"You're willing to trade my life with yours?"

"I don't care about what could happen to me! This thing with you is wrong!"

"What about Nick?" He extended his hand to the young man sitting in the corner. "He's a young man, he could get out of here and start a new life once all this is over. Are you willing to let him die too? You don't care what could happen to him either?"

She couldn't respond. Vaughn was right. There was more at risk than Vaughn's life or her own. She had dragged Nick into mayhem without asking for his permission; she wasn't going to do it again.

"I didn't think so." He sadly said. Vaughn wrinkled his forehead and pursed his lips. "Maybe it would be better for all of us if I just turn myself in. Let somebody else finish the job."

"How could you possibly be so indifferent about this!" Nick decided it was a good time to drop his Stone-like status and rejoin the conversation. "Like it is a simple decision to make, like it was like deciding what color you will wear tomorrow?" He aimed his thoughts at Vaughn.

"Well, it's my life. I think I can have any emotions, or lack of them, when it comes to it." Vaughn told the younger man.

"I didn't spend the last couple of nights trying to keep you alive for nothing!" He exclaimed. "I know it none of my business, that I don't know you at all, but I really don't like people dying on my account."

"Well, I don't like it either. That's why I'm going to do what I'm going to do."

"If Leon says she can fool those spyboys one more time, I believe her." He came closer to the place Leon and Vaughn were sitting. "Take a look around. This place is been my home for the last five years, I was supposed to be six feet under ground and eaten by worms, and yet, I'm still here, breathing and kicking. Leon has done a pretty good job keeping me safe, so if she says she can trick the CIA one more time, you better go with the flow."

"It's not that easy." Vaughn shook his head.

"Yes, it could be." Nick continued. "You can do the same thing I'm doing. We can take you to a safe place and keep you there until everything's calmed again and then you can go anywhere you want to go."

"I wish it could be that simple." Vaughn lifted his head so Nick could look at his eyes. "Your case's different. You don't know the kind of things I know."

"Maybe I know worse things and that's why there was a hit put on me." Nick wasn't backing off. "Do you thing the CIA would worry about a stupid hacker?"

"Okay." Leon stopped the exchange before it went off limits. "We'll think about what we're going to do next tomorrow. It's getting late and Michael needs to rest, and we all need to calm down. So I say we all go to sleep and ask the pillow what it thinks about this."

Nick and Leon helped Vaughn to stand up and they were going to help him to go back to the mattress, but he insisted he could walk without any help. He slowly made his way to the room Nick used as a bedroom and let himself down to the object that served as a bed.

Nick said goodnight and went to sleep on the couch. Leon was about to go too, but when she leaned to kissed Vaughn's forehead, he grabbed her elbow and kept her where she was; close to his face.

She couldn't resist being that close to Vaughn's face without not doing anything. She went lower and tenderly kissed him on the mouth. He kissed her back and let go of her arm and moved his hand to the back of her head.

They kissed for a while, until she realized what they were doing and she started to pull back.

"Don't go." He whispered.

"Mike, I don't think we should." She was trying to get herself out of the situation, but the truth was she didn't want to.

"Please." He looked at her. "Just don't go."

She could see his terrified green orbs pleading her to stay with him, not out of lust but out of an intense need of company.

She didn't say a word and proceeded to take off her clown shoes and the stinky clown outfit. She ended up with a white top and black boxers. That didn't seem to catch Vaughn's attention.

She laid down next to him. He put his arm around her waist and brought her head to rest on his shoulder. He didn't know what was happening, he couldn't explain why, if he had those feelings for Sydney; he had this physical attraction to this young woman. Animal magnetism maybe.

Or maybe he was an emotional breakdown waiting to happen.

They both knew he wasn't in condition to do anything, but they also wanted a moment to forget everything. Forget their screwed-up lives. But they also knew it wasn't right. It was not the time or the place to renew a relationship that never began.

Leon had silently loved him forever. She even lied about her age once just to get close to him. He found out when it was too late, when she already owned his heart. And there was nothing he could do about it.

That was one of the main reasons they decided to put distance between them, but they weren't strong enough to forget about each other and that's why they decided to send messages only them could understand just to let the other know how they were doing.

Again, why couldn't he fall for women he could date?

He clung to her as if she was his piece of wood that kept him floating over the ocean.

"Have you ever wondered where we'd be if things had gone differently?" He asked him.

"Someplace else but here." That was her response. She was trying to keep her emotions in check. Like steel. "Maybe we weren't meant to be. Don't you think?"

"Maybe." He repeated.

"Have you?" She asked him.

"It has crossed my mind."

"Mike," She lifted her head a little to let him see her sincerity. "I swear I'm doing everything I can to get you away from all this pandemonium. I wish there were more." Her eyes sad.

He led her back on his shoulder and tightened his grip. "I know. There's something else you can do, though."

She thought he was talking about something else, and he read that.

"Just sleep." He told her. "I just want to watch you sleep." He set her right. "It was always good to watch you sleep."

"You used to watch me sleep?" She asked him astonished.

"You always looked peaceful on your sleep, like nothing else mattered." He looked serious. "It was kind of soothing, you know? It was like I was spying on you, just to get to the same peaceful place you were at."

She smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek. She fell asleep with that smile on her face. Vaughn watched her for a while and that seemed to sooth him, because he fell asleep too without thinking about his tribulations, the CIA, his life or Sydney.

In LA, Sydney reunited with her father who told her how his meeting with Devlin had gone. He told her that the CIA director hadn't authorized the searching and killing of Vaughn. He also told her that Devlin put him on charge of a secret mission which purpose was to retrieve Vaughn without anybody else to know about it, because it was already known that the order of murder Vaughn was false and they needed to determine who was after all that.

Sydney volunteered to help his father, but he reminded her of her new operation at SD-6. She immediately backed off.

Her father promised her he would keep her updated. She left after that.

She went to bed. She thought she could sleep before leaving to South Africa the next morning. She was wrong. She moved to her side and started to cry but stopped before the tears spilled were too many. She stayed up all night. She decided to plan how she could get Vaughn out of trouble.

Jack did the same thing. He went to his house but he didn't go to bed. He instead spent all night in his living room studying the situation, causes and consequences. He didn't know the causes for sure, but he knew it had something to do with Sydney, and that's why he was worried about the consequences.

So there they were, five people fighting for something in common: Vaughn. Maybe everyone had a different reason. Vaughn because he felt like he wasn't ready to die in a unfair way; Leon because her love for him wasn't selfish and she rather to have him miles away than have him dead; Nick because he knew what it would do to his friend if Vaughn died; Sydney because she was awakening to her feelings for this man and she was beginning to understand them and accept them, and Jack because he was selfish enough to want this man alive for his daughter and his nation's sake.

The five of them, the best on their fields, and yet, all of them feared for the same thing: the set of dawn. There's always a next morning, but what would it bring to them?

Okay, I know some people is going to kill me for putting this girl between Syd and Vaughn, but she harmless..


	4. Transition

A/N: Ok. I think it'd be a good idea to post this since I've finished it. Who knew it'd take me two seasons to do that? And let's pretend everything _after_ the Counteragent never happened.

PART FOUR.

The next morning Vaughn woke up with a overwhelming sense of loss. He remembered feeling entirely comfortable and that made him forget about all of his problems. But now, he felt like the warmth had been dragged out of him and all the darkness he'd been living in for the past few days had come back full force.

Then he remembered. Leon had slept next to him. He had fallen asleep watching her immersed in her peaceful slumber, but now there was no sign of Leon. He had a bad feeling about this.

He got up and met Nick, still fast asleep, in the living room. He looked around and saw Leon was nowhere to be seen. He went to the bathroom and found a note in the mirror.

'M. Had to go. L.' he read.

He knew Leon was about to do one of two things: Being reasonable enough to go back to work like nothing happened or being stupid enough to hack into CIA files and got caught for that.

Vaughn was pretty sure it was the second one.

He sighed and brushed his teeth.

Jack walked through the halls of the Operations Center and found Kendall who wanted to know the details of Vaughn's disappearance. Jack chose to ignore him and went to a safe computer. When he couldn't shrug off the questions from Kendall, he faced him.

Kendall told him that Vaughn had called Agent Weiss and that he was probably suspecting of his friend and the CIA setting him up, and he was probably hiding.

Nothing Jack didn't already know. But he played fool with Kendall. He knew that Vaughn had gotten to the very same conclusion from day one and if he was as smart as everyone seemed to think, he WASN'T probably hiding, he was for sure digging his way out of the country.

"I need to talk to Agent Weiss, if you don't mind." Jack told Kendall, hoping that it would be enough to get him out of his sight.

"What kind of trouble Agent Vaughn is in?." Jack was wrong. Kendall was still annoying the hell out of him.

"Hey, you sort of run this place. I thought you knew more than I do." Jack answered the other man.

"I'm assigning a team to search for Agent Vaughn." Kendall said. Kinda late for that, Jack thought. "Last time we heard about him, he was in Arizona. He called Agent Weiss from there." He paused. "Do you have any idea which locations Agent Vaughn may be using as refuges?"

Jack let go an exasperated sigh. He rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand.

"Do I look like some kind of confident to Mr. Vaughn?" Jack looked at Kendall's face. "Do you think I have some kind of fraternal bond with him, which would have earned me his confidence?" Jack calmed himself down. "Mr. Vaughn and I have worked together a couple of times, that doesn't mean he comes to me every time he goes out for a drink and spill his guts on me."

Kendall was stunned. Jack was happy for that. He needed to deflect any kind of attention anyone was paying to him concerning Vaughn. He was told he could ensemble a rescue mission, but it would be more effective if no one knew about it. He needed to play his part very well. He was a professional liar after all.

After Jack could shoo Kendall, he went back to work. He was concentrated on his current task: finding out what the hell happened and how and why it had happened. He couldn't shrug off the idea of all this having something to do with Sydney being a double agent.

Jack knew how to hack a computer. He had picked a thing or two from Marshall. He began with the video surveillance of the computer room, where the order could have been placed on the system. He watched the tapes from the day Vaughn disappeared and the day before that. Not so many people had entered that room.

He studied them all. No one seemed to be the responsible for this mess. He gave up with the tapes and decided to play safe. He asked the CIA director to assign a computer expert to trace the place where the message had been posted. He knew it would be difficult and if the author of this was dumb, he probably would get lucky.

He remembered something about a virtual fingerprint, which seem _virtually_ impossible for him. Sometimes those fingerprints were altered to confuse anyone looking for a point of origin.

He knew there were a few things he could do to keep Vaughn away from a coffin, and he was going to use his best material.

In New York, Nick finally woke up and found Vaughn freshly showered. He was about to complain when Vaughn told him that he made sure he didn't moisten the wound, that his body was screaming for a shower.

"Leon left?" Nick asked the older man.

"Yes. She wasn't here when I woke up."

"She uses to do that a lot." Nick replied

Vaughn looked at Nick in amazement and raised his eyebrows.

"Don't worry," Nick told him. "We haven't gotten anywhere near the smoochy-mooching."

"The s—What???" Vaughn didn't understand what Nick was saying and he was sure Nick didn't know what he was saying either. "You know what, never mind."

"What?" Nick was still dragging him to the banter. "Are you scared you're going to lose your chick?"

"Nooo!" Vaughn knew Nick was trying to making him feel better.

"You should be." Nick mocked seriousness. "Everyone should watch their chicks when I enter the room. You never know."

"Okay, stop right there my little friend." Vaughn played along. "First of all, she's not my chick-"

"You sure?" Nick continued. "I saw you last night."

"Well, she's not!" Vaughn protested. "And secondly, I don't even know why I ended up having this nonsense conversation." Vaughn paused to look at Nick in the eyes. "And I thank you for that."

"Anytime, man. Anytime." Nick replied. "Hey!" Nick said after a moment "Wanna get your ass kicked again?"

Vaughn rolled his eyes. "How many times do I have to beat you in Playstation to make sure the only butt getting kicked is yours?" Nick smiled. "Do you have some spare clothes I can fit into? I'm afraid that if I look at these sweat pants, I'm going to find they're alive."

"You can look in the closet in my room." Nick told him. "You're taller than me, but that won't be a problem because I like bigger pants, and Leon brought some underwear, how did she know your size? I don't want to know; but it's there anyway. Suit yourself." He said.

"Okay, thanks."

Vaughn stopped when a sudden thought came to his mind. Nick noticed the changed of attitude and asked him what was going on.

"I was wondering if my dog's been taken care of, that's all." Vaughn sadly answered Nick's question.

Jack let the computer expert to work on the computer records and he insisted on going over Weiss's house, but changed the direction when someone told him that he was at Vaughn's place taking care of Donovan, Vaughn's dog.

Jack never imagined he'd be at Vaughn's home. He thought that if any of the previous days had happened, he probably would have never visited it. He was surprised to see how simple, but tasteful the decoration was; and how lonely it felt.

"I thought you were supposed to be resting at your house." Jack coldly told the other man.

"I only came to bring Donovan for a little while." Weiss shrugged. "I guess he was homesick."

In fact, the dog was slumped next to the door, like he was waiting for someone to come. Jack felt a little pity for the minuscule canine; but only for a while.

"What do you need?" Weiss asked Jack.

"What can you tell me about Agent Vaughn?"

"He called me from Arizona and asked me for help. He sounded very desperate." Weiss lifted his face to meet the older man's eyes. "I called the CIA and informed them about the situation and made sure there was an extraction team to pick Mike- - I mean, Agent Vaughn at the airport."

"You sent a team at the airport."

"Yes." Weiss quickly said. "I told him to come to LA in a commercial flight, but then I thought that if he was in the kind of danger he said he was, I better made sure he got here safe. According to their report, they didn't even get the chance to see him."

Jack knew all of this. He just wanted to make sure which side Weiss was. He needed to discard all of possible suspects. He knew that Agent Weiss had been at home recovering from the wound caused by Irina. But still it was suspicious that he was the last person Vaughn called and why he disappeared if Weiss had sent an extraction team.

And there was the other side of Jack. He felt a part of him telling him Weiss had nothing to do with Vaughn's problems. Then why did Jack feel that Weiss somehow gave away Vaughn's location?

Maybe Weiss's house was bugged or maybe someone intercepted his phone. Maybe.

"Are you investigating Vaughn's case?" Weiss asked Jack.

"I just want to know what happened." Jack was still cold.

Jack left Vaughn's house and decided he better showed his face at SD-6, and try to do some work there. Then, he would be back at the Operations Center and continue his investigation from there.

Leon was hacking into the CIA files. She had learned a couple of things in the five years she'd met Nick.

In the middle of Vaughn and Nick's banter, a cell phone rang. Vaughn frowned because he thought Nick didn't have a cell phone. He didn't even think he had a normal telephone.

Nick hit a button but waited until he heard a voice in the other end of the line.

"It's me." Leon.

"Mrs. Robinson!" Nick teased. "I thought phone calls were off limits."

"Shut up." Leon commanded. "Is Mr. Sneaky around?". She was in a paid phone and Nick could hear she was near a traffic Jam.

"Hang on," Nick passed the cell phone to Vaughn.

"Yeah." He simply said, he knew it wasn't safe to talk freely.

"I need to talk to you, but I got caught in a traffic jam."

"What's going on?" he asked alarmed.

"Are you up for a walk?"

"I can't play in the Stanley Cup if that's what you ask, but I can walk".

"Okay," She said. Then she explained to him where they should meet and when.

"Okay." He agreed. "I'll meet you at the parking lot."

"There's a door at the end of a gray wall. It's where all the electrical and phone lines are. I'll be there." She waited until Vaughn confirmed his understanding.

When Vaughn arrived the building, he noticed there wasn't a single soul at the parking lot. He felt tired. And he had a headache, but Leon didn't need to know that.

He double-checked his back, to see if anyone was around and he felt relieved when he saw the parking lot was empty. He went to the little door Leon had told him about and when he turned around the doorknob a hand dragged him to the diminutive room with an extreme force.

"Hey!" He exclaimed. "Bullet wound." He said rubbing his abdomen.

"Sorry," she apologized. "Had to make sure it was you."

He looked at her in disbelief, but chose to said nothing.

"What is it?" He demanded.

"Someone's tailing me." She said like it was nothing.

"WHAT????" Vaughn yelled. "Are you sure?" He asked her when he calmed down a bit.

"Hey! I've been trained to hide and disappear; I've been trained to look for every possible exit and for every subtle thing out of place. I've been taught to distrust a Catholic Priest; I know when I have someone on my back."

"Okay." His tone was resigned.

"It took me forty minutes just to lose the guy."

"And you don't think that going to Manhattan, one of the most public places in town, would blow both of our covers?"

"It's also one of the most crowded." She played fool.

"This is not the time to play smartass, young lady!" Vaughn chastised her.

"I was at work, you know, my fake work, and I- -"

"You accessed the CIA data base." He finished her sentence.

"How did you know that?"

"Because I know how stupid and reckless you can be sometimes" he answered her question.

She was speechless for a moment then she regained her self-control.

"Yes, I did, and I found out…"

"That the message was indeed posted from a CIA source" he said calmly.

"You should really stop finishing my sentences. It's freaking me out."

"Well…?"

"Yes, it was posted from a CIA source, but I found something strange."

"Oh, come on!" He was losing his cool. "Are you going to tell me or what?"

"I'm not sure, but I think I found something out of the ordinary in this message; I don't know why I haven't noticed this earlier." She paused and started pacing. "Every single message has to be double checked by the CIA director and the coordinator of the black ops. We know that. But, in this message, the only one who signed was the CIA director. It's his code number that appears on the server".

"I thought it needed both codes." Vaughn said perplexed.

"All it needs is two codes the system can recognize, and given that the CIA director has higher clearance, the system shouldn't mind if the other one is missing."

"That just sounds so stupid."

"Hey!" She said. "I don't do the system. The system does me."

"Let's pretend you didn't say that in the way I think you did, okay?" he told her. "What about the coordinator of black ops? Shouldn't he be aware of the situation?"

"Not really." Leon calmly said. "The double check is only used in case of the coordinator of black ops is working on his own. If he posts an order, that can't go through because the system needs CIA director's signature. But if the CIA director himself decides to work on his own, that doesn't matter because everyone is assuming that he is doing the right thing."

"So, Devlin is the one who wants me killed?" Vaughn was starting to lose his temper. All these years, Vaughn thought Devlin was on his side. How could he be so wrong?

"We need to get moving." She added.

Vaughn looked at Leon's shoes.

"You sure you were careful?" He said after a minute.

In LA, Jack received a call from the computer expert to tell him he was required at the Operations Center as soon as possible.

He rushed over there and questioned the other man as soon as he got there.

"What do you mean by that?" Jack asked the other man.

"There was a breach on the computer system twenty minutes ago. That's why I called you."

"Do you know where it originated?" Jack anxiously asked.

"I'm working on it," The other man said.

"Let me know as soon as you get something."

"Where are you going?" The computer expert asked.

"I still need to work."

Fifty minutes late the computer expert called Jack again. He told him that he had traced the location of the intrusion. He told Jack that it had been a little difficult but he had managed to trace it to New York City. He gave Jack a rounded area limited only to a few blocks.

Jack decided to keep his promise to his daughter and called her immediately. He told her everything he knew and she insisted on going to New York to investigate.

Jack rejected her suggestion immediately. She couldn't do that. There was more at stake than Vaughn's life. Why couldn't she understand it? She was narrow-minded. Just like her father.

After almost an hour, Jack finally accepted. Sydney would go to New York to investigate. The only problem was her cover at SD-6. He would have to work on that.

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Sydney arrived to New York that night. She went directly to the area her father said. She searched every corner and every space. She found a few restaurants with no internet connections, a few grocery stores and a couple of apartment buildings. She asked her father to check if any of those buildings were billing addresses for any internet companies. Jack gave her a few, but none that could help her.

She was also wearing a pair of glasses which allowed her father to see anything or anyone she was seeing. When she reached a candy store, her father made her go in because he thought he saw someone familiar.

"Sydney, turn to your right." Jack commanded. He recognized the woman. "Sydney, the woman wearing the blue coat,"

"What about her?" She asked.

"Don't let her out of your sight." Jack ordered. "She may lead us to something."

Sydney did Jack ordered and she was following the woman her father recognized. The woman seemed to work at the candy store and it looked like her shift was about to end. Sydney picked up a bag of Hershey's and pretended she was looking for something else. She heard the other woman saying good night to a man behind the counter and wrap a white scarf around her neck before leaving the store.

Sydney waited a few minutes before going after her and tried her best to remain unseen. She noticed the woman took a turn around a corner and she followed her. When Sydney leaned out to see where the woman was, she saw nothing.

"Dad," Sydney was getting agitated. She somehow knew this woman could lead her to Vaughn's whereabouts. "Can you see her?"

"No." Jack knew the woman had to be somewhere. "Sydney, look up"

And there she was.

The two women fell on the floor due the impact of the woman throwing herself at Sydney. Sydney's glasses fell off her face and Jack could not see what was going on.

"Looking for me?" The woman, who happened to be Leon, threw a punch directed to Sydney's face, but Sydney's managed to avoid it.

They kept fighting and it seemed like Leon had the upper hand, but when she was about to get away from Sydney and run, Sydney grabbed her and made her lose her balance. Now Sydney was on top of Leon and managed to immobilize her.

"Dad, I've got her" Sydney activated her communication link with her father.

"Be careful, Sydney, she's much stronger than she seems."

Just when Jack was finishing his sentence, Leon somehow freed one of her legs and kicked Sydney on her back.

"What do you want?" Leon demanded an answer. She was pressing Sydney's throat closed.

"My name is Sydney Bristow," Sydney tried to make Leon understand she was on her side. "I think you may have some useful information that could help me find someone." She tried again between gasps "I'm looking for Michael Vaughn. I need to find him before the CIA does. He's in grave danger."

"You're CIA?" Leon pressed harder.

"Yes!" Sydney thought it was a good idea to tell Leon who she was working for.

"Do you think that automatically makes you part of the good guys?" Leon's cold stared was aimed at Sydney. "It doesn't."

"Wait!" Sydney tried to reason with the woman who was about to snap his throat like a chicken ready to be cooked.

"I don't care about you or your conspiracy theories. Tell whoever's on the other end of the line I don't know anything about Michael Vaughn, that if I did, they'd know by now" She hit Sydney so hard she was unconscious for a moment, enough to let Leon get away.

Leon didn't go to Nick's place like she had planned. Not after her meeting with Sydney, but she needed to let Vaughn know the CIA was looking for him in New York.

She didn't trust Sydney. Not after what Vaughn told her about their trip to India when all hell broke lose. She believed Sydney had something to do with Vaughn's situation and she was going to do everything in her power to keep her away from Vaughn.

Leon knew she'd been caught. She knew Sydney was in town thanks to her little stunt. She should've listened to Vaughn. What a fool!

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Sydney woke up with her father's face above hers. She grunted when she tried to stand and Jack had to help her up.

"I told you she was stronger than she seems." Jack stated.

"I feel like I've been hit on the head with a brick." Sydney said, feeling her jaw. "Who was that girl?"

"She's CIA too" Jack replied.

"Do you know her?" Sydney asked shocked. "She's one of us?"

"Not exactly."

"Dad…" Sydney's head was killing her and she didn't need her father making it all worse.

"She's one of the people who should be after Vaughn" Jack admitted.

"Dad, could you please be a little less dark about this and tell me everything you know?" Sydney was getting annoyed.

"Her name is Leonella Miller" Jack explained. "She was trained by the CIA to be lethal. That's why she said that if she knew anything about Vaughn, we'd have known by now. She meant that if she knew anything, Vaughn would be dead."

"You sound a little skeptical"

"I think she knows where Vaughn is." Jack paused a moment to put his thoughts in order. "I was told the signal came from this area and it's not coincidence she's here. I think she's trying to find out who wants Vaughn dead and why. She just doesn't know who she can trust yet."

"How are we going to make her understand she can trust us, when she can't even let us talk?" Sydney was starting to get distressed. This woman might be the only chance they had to find Vaughn alive. "Dad, she probably thinks I set him up!"

"I know." Jack was probably the only one who was thinking with cold head. "All evidence points out you and Weiss betrayed Vaughn. But I know she also suspects there's someone else behind all this, but she can't afford to get caught. She was lucky we were the ones who found her and not somebody else."

"Why?"

"Sometimes the CIA is not that different from SD-6" Jack answered. "If they find out she didn't do her job, she could be in serious trouble."

"What are we going to do now?" Sydney asked. There was sadness in her tone.

"Now we wait."


End file.
